I'm about six weeks into teaching myself Greek, so I'm very much a beginner here. With modern languages I like to use multiple texts; if I get stuck on one I move on to the next, and thus can slowly approach a new language from multiple angles. It works very well for me.

With Greek, though, I have two Attic texts (Assimil's Le grec ancien and a 1952 copy of Teach Yourself Greek) and one Homeric (Pharr).

I realize the dialects are different, but are they so different than one should focus on only one or the other at first? Are the differences mostly vocabulary and a few tenses, or is there a significant grammatical difference also? In other words, is there a lot of interference, or do they support and strengthen each other?

Last edited by kanewai on Tue Jan 15, 2013 8:50 pm, edited 4 times in total.

There are more than a half dozen dialects of which three are major: Homeric/Epic, Attic, and Koine/Hellenistic. Nobody starts with two of these at the same time. So yes, you have to make a choice. Do you want to read Homer or the literature of classical Athens?

Pros and cons are presented here, but ultimately it comes down to what your interests are.

In other words, is there a lot of interference, or do they support and strengthen each other?

ἐπίκουροί εἰσιν.

{The interference is minimal. They strenghten each other.}

Hillel said that you should repent one day before you die, but, since you do not know when you will die, you might as well repent today. Start Homer one day before you die.

{ἀεὶ γὰρ εὔκαιρος Ὅμηρος.}

I am writing in Ancient Greek not because I know Greek well, but because I hope that it will improve my fluency in reading. I got the idea for this from Adrianus over on the Latin forum here at Textkit.

I would start with one and get comfortable with that (or at least make sure you have a strong grasp of the grammar/forms/vocabulary presented) before starting to jump between dialects. I learned Attic and later started working with epic and drama -- it's quite doable, but there is a learning curve, and there's no need to confuse yourself by confronting more forms than necessary all at once.

kanewai wrote:I'm about six weeks into teaching myself Greek, so I'm very much a beginner here. With modern languages I like to use multiple texts; if I get stuck on one I move on to the next, and thus can slowly approach a new language from multiple angles. It works very well for me.

What you do is pretty much what I do. I have been concentrating on Attic, using severaltext books but every now and then I try a bit of Koine (plus Polybios who is sort of Attic-Koine) and even occasionally Homer. I have not found the small differences large enough to be confusing. Of course, you might have more of a problem if you mix dialects to theextent that not one predominates.